Healthcare Is About To Surpass Housing As The Biggest Source Of American “Growth”

Following yesterday’s breakdown of 2015 GDP growth components, there was little surprise that the biggest source of “growth” for the US economy in the past year was healthcare growing at an absolute dollar pace nearly double that the second highest category (recreational vehicles of all things, because in the eyes of the BEA the US has gone on unprecedented Winnebago spending spree).
It was also no surprise that the biggest source of “growth” within healthcare was the tax known as the “Affordable Care Act”, which of course is woefully named: as we reported yesterday, a recent report from Freedom Partners Health found that health insurance premiums have increased faster than wages and inflation in recent years, rising an average of 28 percent from 2009 to 2014 despite the enactment of Obamacare, “or rather “because of.”
Ironically, without the Obamacare tax, US growth in 2015 would have been as much as 0.5% lower, pushing GDP down from the upwardly revised 2.4% to 1.9% or lower.

This post was published at Zero Hedge on 03/26/2016.